Another Ride On bus has caught fire in Maryland. It's the second bus this month, and the seventh in the last three years.
The fire was at Ramsey and Bonifant Streets in Silver Spring. There were no passengers on board, and officials are investigating the cause.
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett said in a statement today that he wants the Champion line of buses out:
I have directed the Department of General Services to take all remaining Ride On Champion buses out of service -- permanently. We are very fortunate that no one was injured in today’s fire and there were no passengers on the out-of-service bus.
Staff has been working aggressively to find replacement buses for the Champions. A number of the buses have already been replaced, and by the end of August, we will have the remaining replacement buses in service.
The Ride On bus system will run a special modified holiday schedule Thursday and Friday. The schedule is available as a direct link on the County’s homepage at https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov.
There will be three exceptions to the posted schedule to add additional service. Route 2 will provide service to Walter Reed; Route 38 will provide service to the U.S. Postal Training Academy and Route 54 will provide service to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology).
The holiday schedule reduces the frequency of service, but all routes will have bus service.
Ride On will operate normal Saturday and Sunday schedules this weekend.
Stay with News4 and NBCWashington.com for more information as this story develops.
